LONG BEACH, Calif. -
The UC Davis women broke three more school records while the men leaped into fourth place in the team scoring to highlight Aggie action in the second day of the Big West Conference Swimming And Diving Championships at the Belmont Plaza Thursday.

Junior Michelle Jennings broke her own school 500-yard freestyle record, placing fourth with a time of 4:59.82 in the finals to beat her previous mark of 5:01.06, set in last year's Pacific Collegiate Swimming Conference championships. In the next women's event, Yuka Kobayashi swam a 2:05.26 as a non-scoring competitor in the 200 individual medley, beating by .73 the school record she set early in her freshman year.

In the final women's event, the 200 freestyle relay team of Hannah Watanabe, Jill Olson, Kobayashi and Renee Dyer compiled a runner-up time of 1:35.18, less than a half-second behind first-place Pacific. That mark was more than a full second faster than the old UC Davis record, also set at last year's PCSC meet.

Chaldekas' scored 415.60 to place third in the 3-meter diving competition, the Aggies' highest women's finish. Taylor had the top men's finish when his 1:51.94 made third place in the 200 IM. Taylor's mark also moves him into third among all-time UC Davis performers.

Other highlights included Kyle Leto, whose season-best 4:36.04 in the 500 free placed 11th overall and moved him into sixth in the school record book. Additionally, the men's 200 free relay foursome of Ryan Tucker, Peter Hagens, Travis Williams and Matt Crawford combined for a 1:25.24, almost two seconds faster than the previous season-best time in that event.

The school's all-time women's 50 freestyle rankings saw the most dramatic changes after Thursday's events. Dyer hit an Aggie-best 23.76 in the 50 free preilms to improve her second-place standing in UC Davis annals. Watanabe's leadoff split of 24.04 in the 200 free relay places her third all-time. Furthermore, Ashley Cayford and Jill Olson posted 24.17 and 24.19, respectively, to move into sixth and seventh in the all-time top 10.

This is UC Davis' first year of competition at the Big West Conference championships. Although the school will not become official members of the league until 2007-08, the men's and women's swimming and diving teams were invited to participate in the conference meet this year, as voted by the Big West head coaches.

The Aggie women strengthened their third-place team standing, finishing the day with an eight-event total of 267.5 points, well ahead of fourth-place UC Santa Barbara's 191.5-point sum. UC Irvine holds a slim lead at 339 points, 30 ticks in front of second-place Pacific. Cal Poly (99), UC Irvine (93) and Cal St. Northridge (66) comprise the fifth through seventh places.

On the men's scoring, Pacific leads UCSB with a 319-301 margin for the team lead after seven events. UC Irvine is third at 201.5 while UC Davis moved into fourth with 153 points. Cal St. Northridge fell into fifth at 121.5 while Cal Poly rounds out the scoring with 94 points.

The conference championships pick up on Friday at 11 a.m. with the women's 400 individual medley.